


Pas de Deux

by PinkLady80



Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: Alternate Timelines, Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, Auston is NOT the stalker, F/M, Older Woman/Younger Man, Sexism, Stalking, Women Not Supporting Other Women
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-04
Updated: 2018-08-04
Packaged: 2019-06-21 18:17:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,295
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15563661
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PinkLady80/pseuds/PinkLady80
Summary: Mitch Marner finds her way.Auston Matthews looks in from the outside.





	1. Ballerina

**Author's Note:**

> Definition:  
> 1 : a dance or figure for two performers  
> 2 : an intricate relationship or activity involving two parties or things
> 
> merriam-webster.com

**_Heir to the Throne_ **

As Michelle Marner watches Auston Matthews approach the stage after she announces the first pick of the 2016 NHL Entry Draft, she knows this is her future.  This child, this boy king, is her successor.  When she hangs up her skates for the last time, he will take her place.

She hopes she's not forced out early but that probably won't be up to her.  Three other women have played in the NHL and only Sidney Crosby finished out her contact before retiring.  Nicola Backstrom was bought out and Carrie Price was forced into retirement due to injury.

She doesn't have time to wonder about her future with the team.  She has a new rookie to take under her wing.  She'll show him how they play hockey in Toronto.  How to love a city that loves too much, a city whose disappointment can be cruel and crushing, a city that isn't afraid to rip your heart out and throw it in a blender.  She's the captain of the best hockey club in the world and she'll make Matthews proud to wear the Blue and White.

Matthews has reached the stage and she's there waiting for him, hand extended.  She feels short next to him, even in four-inch heels.  She wants to touch the front of her blouse to make sure it's buttoned properly, to make sure her fears won't suddenly be visible to everyone, but she doesn't.  Instead, she watches as Matthews puts the jersey on, followed by the hat. 

She wonders if he thinks the jersey feels heavy.  She wonders if hers will ever stop feeling heavy.  She hopes it never does.

She gives the cameras her media smile as the two of them stand for pictures; bright, pretty, empty.  The front office joins them and there are even more pictures. 

She tries to put some space between herself and the men; to position herself so they touch her as little as possible.  People are always touching her at events like this.  A hand at her elbow or the small of her back like she lacks agency, like she needs guidance, like she isn't an NHL captain.

As the front office makes their way back down to the arena floor, she takes Matthews backstage. Meeting the family is tricky; some parents think she's going to undo all their hard work with her feminine wiles and others are afraid she'll make their sons soft.

A young teenager with dark hair waves in their direction and out of the corner of her eye, she sees Matthews wave back.  His family then.  Mom, Dad, Sisters, and, based on the nervous look on her face, Girlfriend. 

She introduces herself, Mitch to all, and allows Matthews' parents to pepper her with questions.  This is interrupted by their son and she turns to Matthews' girlfriend, telling her they make a handsome couple.  She gets a tight-lipped smile in return and Michelle wonders if Matthews' arm has gone numb from her tight grip.  Matthews' sisters are the most enjoyable, as they have no immediate concerns regarding their brother.  Michelle signs their programs and snaps lots of pictures for their various social media accounts. 

She's just finished taking a photo of Clan Matthews, when PR comes by for the man of the hour.  She tells Matthews she'll see him at rookie camp before slipping away.

Her part in this dog-and-pony show is over and Michelle hopes she can leave the arena without running into Bettman.  His hands are always clammy, and he talks to her breasts, not her face.

Tonight, she looked her future straight on and it looked back.  She wonders what it saw.

 

**_Standing on the Shoulders of Giants_ **

Meeting Sidney Crosby, Nichola Backstrom, and Carrie Price is a dream come true.  After Toronto takes her with the fourth pick and she's had her picture taken more times than she can count, and reporters have asked her some truly head-scratching questions, she's trying to gather her thoughts in a darkened corner and when she turns around, there they are.

Michelle knows her eyes are like saucers and she has the sudden need to wipe her palms down the sides of her skirt.  She feels like a common mortal gazing upon gods.  She shakes their hands and manages not to gush when she tells them they influenced her growing up.

Crosby invites her to join them in the arena's overpriced restaurant and soon they are settled with cups of hot tea.  Women NHL players can't be seen drinking alcohol in public.  Price says it invites bad rumors and commentary among the sports press.

They tell her many things invite comment from the press and old white men and share their experiences.  Find a good psychologist, a good tailor, and a good long-term birth-control method.  Freeze your eggs now; you don’t need a snide article on not doing your womanly duty on top of everything else.

She'll be asked to pose for print adds that are more interested in selling her body than their product.  Ask lots of questions before saying yes.  Have an out clause.

Some of the advice makes her scared:  People are going to want to touch you, people will follow you and share their opinions about your play, people will tell you tell you that you lack "morals".

If she wants to be on social media, she needs to be careful.  Have a plan for after hockey.  When it comes to charity, you can give time or money.  Give time to the worthy ones that involve kids and look great in front of a camera.  Give money, no names attached, to those you love but could be seen as controversial. 

Dating is hard.  Any guy you date is going to feel threatened because you spend a lot of time around naked men.  People are going to comment if they think Michelle is single.  The same people are also going to comment if she's seen in public with too many different men who are not her teammates.

She feels like her head is spinning from all the rules.  How do they do it?

She asks them how they survive.

**Day by day.**

_Is it worth it?_

**Playing well is a thank you to everyone who believed you could do it.  That alone makes it worth it.**

She's grateful for the hard work they put in that allowed her to come so far. 

She hopes she can become some little girl’s inspiration.

 

**_Mean Girls_ **

Michelle's relationships with other women are both incredibly simple and incredibly complex. 

The reason why other women don't like her are easy.  Fear. 

Other women are afraid of her.  Afraid that she’ll overshadow someone they love.  That fear makes them vicious.

The insults had started when she had left home to play for the Knights.  Mothers had swarmed Coach after her first practice wanting to know if this was a good idea for her to play.  A girl on the team?  Won’t she be a distraction?  What if she gets distracted?  Isn’t he worried that she’ll bring down team cohesion?

Her first game as a Knight had been a loss and the jeers started as she went into the tunnel after the final buzzer.  Whispers had continued as the team left the locker where their loved ones, and Michelle's billet mother, were waiting.  News of her arrival spread like plague and by the end of the season, she was getting grief from all sides.

Two people were her saving grace during her time in London.  First was her billet mother, Magda.  She, and her late husband, had been billeting hockey players since The Miracle on Ice and her home had provided peace for a wary teenage Michelle. 

In some ways, Magda had been more of a mother than her actual mother.  She reminded Mitch of Professor McGonagall with her reading glasses pushed towards the tip of her nose and piercing gaze.  She expected Michelle to live by the rules of her house, but it was Michelle’s home too.  She was free to decorate her room however she liked and to have friends over provided they left by 8:00pm on school and game nights.

Magda taught her to do her own laundry, sew a button, and how to make casseroles and stews that could power a teenage hockey player yet still tasted delicious.

When Michelle let it slip that she had a crush on a boy in her history class, Magda’s reaction surprised her.  Her parents would have said that she needed to focus on school and hockey, but Magda asked his name and why she liked him.  When Mitch came home from practice one day upset because he had asked out another girl, Magda had baked her chocolate-chip cookies under the guise of needing something for her book-club meeting.

She sat in the same seat for every one of Michelle’s home games.

They had been close until Magda's death between her rookie and sophomore seasons.

Michelle still misses her.

Stephanie was Michelle's first female friend and has been a source of joy and strength since they were 16 and had decided that Michelle needed a friend. 

Steph is pretty and blonde and wears cute clothes.  She teaches Michelle that her that clothes aren’t just functional, they can be fun too. 

Michelle is embarrassed the first time Steph has her try on something fitted when they’re at the mall on an off-day with Steph’s mom.  It’s just a long-sleeve t-shirt with a crew neck in Knight’s green but she feels exposed.

Her face is the color of a tomato and she wraps her arms around herself for comfort.  She knows what her body looks like.  How it doesn’t look like the bodies of other girls who play sports at school. 

Her mother had commented once, when they were trying to find a chest protector for her, that Michelle had inherited her grandmother’s out of control figure.  Michelle would like to tell Nana Marner thanks but no thanks.

Steph huffs and cross sticks out her tongue at Michelle in the mirror, pointing out that Sidney Crosby has the same body-type and she plays the best hockey in the world.  But if Michelle would like to exchange her breasts and hips for Steph’s, she would be okay with that.

Michelle sighs and buys the t-shirt. 

It’s her first shopping trip since she was 12 where she doesn’t feel at war with a department store.

After graduation and the draft, the two girls left London together for Toronto; Steph for school and Michelle for the Leafs.  They lived together until Steph moved in with her boyfriend when they were 21.  Michelle was the maid of honor at their wedding and she loves Mica like a brother.

She and Michelle have a standing girls-day in.  If Michelle is in town and doesn’t have a game, she is expected to show up at Stephanie’s for Sunday brunch.  Michelle eats a lot of forbidden bacon on Sundays.

Michelle’s parents don’t see many of her games at the arena, so Michelle gives Steph her assigned family seats.  Steph doesn’t take her up on it very often and thinks her presence makes the wives and girlfriends nervous, like she is spying on them.

Michelle believes her.

Michelle had hoped that once she reached the NHL, other women wouldn’t see her as a threat.  This was not to be.  There are zero secrets about bodies in an NHL locker room and she sees her teammates naked frequently.  There are times when she spends more time with her team than away from them. 

But the constant exposure doesn't mean she’s lusting after any of them, quite the opposite.  She sees her teammates drenched in sweat after practice or a game, she's seen them vomit and bleed, she's heard them make vile insults to other players; there is no attraction on her part. 

Michelle is grateful for the unspoken understanding between herself and the wives and girlfriends of her teammates.  For the team to be successful, they need to give her their support.  Because while the front office hasn’t said out loud that they’ll back Michelle to keep up the illusion that the NHL is progressive, it’s heavily implied.  Michelle understands this and the so do the other women.  So, everyone pretends they like each other, everyone smiles, and the deception is successful.

Michelle's relationship with her mother is complicated.  As far back as she can remember, Michelle has always been jealous of girls who told everyone that their mom was their best friend.  Those girls who went shopping with their moms or shared other hobbies.

Michelle's mom isn't her best friend and while they share hockey, it's not a hobby.  Michelle's mom put a lot of work into booking her ice time for extra practice and traveling with her for tournaments.  Making sure she gets noticed.  Making sure she has an experienced agent who takes her talent seriously.

Before she left for London, Michelle could hear her parents arguing after she'd gone to bed.  Her dad wanted her to quit because putting all this time and effort into her hockey was going to have no reward.  She'll have to give it up after college to find a job that pays the bills.  Worse, what if she ends up pregnant?

Sometimes, Michelle thinks she would give up hockey all together if it meant she and her mom could have a normal mother-daughter relationship; could talk about cute guys she’s met, the wedding Michelle went to in the off-season, or a new receipt she’s tried for the slow-cooker.

Michelle feels like her family would have been happier if Chris had been interested in hockey or she had been born a boy.

 

**_Domestic Violence_ **

It starts with a pink envelope being delivered to the mailbox in her high-rise and ends with a grotesque violation of her home. 

The letters, green ink like some Unforgivable Curse.  The flowers, pretty arrangements she might have picked for herself.  The pictures: Michelle at the grocery store.  Michelle out for a run.  Michelle out with her team.  Pictures of her with Stephanie.  With Stephanie's son.  Pictures of her out on the ice during a home game.

For two years, fear had ruled her life; forced her to change her life.  She’d felt powerless.  She was angry.  She’s still angry.

She’s even angrier after Babs tells the team.  At practice, the team treats her like she’s made of glass, like any moment she could shatter.  They don't fight her for the puck and they don't get out of her way as she comes in low to paste them up against the boards.  Babs called it a day after she screams at them.  She’s barely off the ice before she’s crying again.

The team arranges for extra appointments with her psychologist.  Dr Nguyen already knows what happened, Michelle would have fallen apart if not for her insight, but now that the ugly ordeal is team knowledge, she needs the extra support.  She knows that some of her team could lash out at her.  Could decide that she’s not strong enough to shoulder this team.

She won’t allow that to happen.

She tells her parents in the lobby of the arena, because she doesn't want to tell them at their house.  She can't escape if she tells them at their house.  Her mother breaks down.  How will this affect her place on the team?  Michelle soothes her; telling her parents that the person who did this is in custody.  The team will be paying for her attorney.  Paying for her condo to be sold and for movers to put her things in storage while she finds another place.

Her father scowls; she doesn't know what he's thinking.  She's never understood him.

She feels alone, scared, let down.

 

**_Guess Who's Coming to Dinner_ **

When Auston asks Michelle to join himself and his parents for dinner at his house, she doesn’t know how to answer.

The invitation feels out of bounds.

She takes so long with her answer that he turns bright red, saying she shouldn't feel any pressure to say yes.  He asked her because she's important to him as his captain, and his parents are important to him because they're his parents, and he wants them to get to know her better.  They've met her informally at team skates and parties.  They like her.  They think she’s a good influence.

One dinner won't hurt.

She tells him she'll bring dessert and to let her know if she needs to pick up a bottle of red or white wine.

He looks relieved when the conversation ends.

Spring has finally arrived in Toronto and since the weather is calling for warmish sun instead of chilly rain, she decides to walk the 15 minutes between her home and Auston's in hopes of working off some of her nervous energy.

It had been a source of amusement for her, and embarrassment for him, to find out they lived in the same posh, gated community.  Michelle had come upon him walking a girl to her car at 7:00am during a morning jog.  She had waved.  Auston had looked like he wished the ground would open under his feet.

She takes comfort in listening to her boots clack against the pavement as she walks, nectarine tart in one hand, a bag with two bottles of wine in the other. 

She's been invited a teammate's house for dinner, not facing a firing squad.  She has brunch with Stephanie, Mica, and their kids all the time.

Dinner is at 6 and she'll probably be home by 8:30.  She can call Steph at 8:30 on a weeknight.

She doesn't get home until after 10.

 

**_The Snow's Coming Down, I'm Watching It Fall_ **

 Out of all the family parties the Toronto Maple Leafs host annually, the Christmas party is Michelle's favorite.  She plans it herself, finding the venue, the catering, the DJ.  The food is a mix of kid and parent-friendly and the venue is always big enough so while everyone between the ages 3-10, and some of the rookies, are thrashing to "Rocking Around the Christmas Tree", their parents can still talk.  The party always wraps up by 8:00pm as parents cart their sugar-high, but still exhausted, offspring home; their arms filled with presents from Santa.

Michelle loves the Christmas party because it's formal and the only time she allows herself to wear a non-hockey dress to a hockey event.  This year's dress is a heavily-sequined purple and gold number with a boat-neck and it rustles when she walks.  The dress makes her feel powerful, like she could grind anyone into dust or command armies.

She’s the last one in the ballroom, working her way through a plate of raw vegetables and half a glass of room-temperature wine, waiting for the tear-down crew to arrive, when Auston drops down into the seat next to her.  She's surprised to see him.  His parents had been at the party, Michelle had spent 30 minutes talking with his mother and had been invited to dinner while they were in town, but she thought he'd gone home with them.  She’s also not surprised to see him.

He isn't the kid she had greeted on the draft stage years ago, he's grown into a reliable leader on and off the ice.  There's a reason she gave him an "A" at the start of the season.  But sometimes she wonders what he thinks his duties are.  Helping her lead their team, that’s part of having an “A.”  He does that part well.  She can always feel him at her back when they go out onto the ice at the start of a game.  He’s a wonderful ally against new trades or rookies who might have a problem with her captaincy; letting the team know that if anyone in their locker-room doesn’t think they can or should listen to her, maybe this isn’t the locker-room for them.

What isn’t in his job description is to be her knight in shining armor.  Sometimes he thinks it is.  She can read this play, he feels the need to walk her to her car. 

Normally, she would pull rank and send him home, pointing out that her SUV is parked close and it’s not terribly late.  Tonight, she doesn't have the heart to call him on it.  Instead she pushes her veggies toward him. 

Help yourself.

He monopolizes the cucumber slices and they crunch in comfortable silence.  Her mind goes off on a tangent and she realizes she lets him into her space a lot.  She allows him to sit with her on the bus or the plane, even when there isn't hockey to discuss.  Some mornings, when she gets home from her run or swim, she'll find a text asking if she wants a ride to practice or the game.  Or, if he's had a bad game the evening before, a text asking if she can give him a ride. 

He's always respectful when she says no.

She wonders if this makes them friends.  It feels like friends, or at least more than teammates.

Suddenly feeling bold she pushes her chair away from the table and holds her hands out.  He looks up at her but gets the picture when she wriggles her fingers at him.  His eyes are laughing at her as she moves them around the room; Mariah Carey singing about all she wants for Christmas. 

Her dress really isn't made for dancing and her dance partner is being deliberately difficult, but she can control one of these, so she knocks her hip into him.  It devolves into laughter and by the time the staff arrive to pack the room up, she's using his arm to twirl herself.  "Blue Christmas" isn't a twirling song, but she's long past caring.

When they leave the building, it's snowing.  The thick, heavy kind that seems to absorb all sound.  It makes her feel like she and Auston are the only two people left in the city.  Maybe it's the time of year, or the snow, or the fact that Auston Matthews is a decent person and they might be friends, but Michelle feels the need to hug him.

She must catch him by surprise because he stiffens, just a little, before hugging back.


	2. Danseur

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This story has always been Mitch's but here is a little something from Auston's point of view.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Definition:  
> 1 : a dance or figure for two performers  
> 2 : an intricate relationship or activity involving two parties or things
> 
> merriam-webster.com

**_1._ **

Auston Matthews is selected first overall in the NHL's 2016 Entry Draft by the Toronto Maple Leafs.  Auston knows Toronto is going to pick him but watching Leafs captain Michelle "Mitch" Marner step up to the podium and call out his name is a relief.

Auston hugs his parents and girlfriend before making his way to the stage.  Marner is there to meet him with the requisite jersey and ball cap.

Her handshake is very confident.

Backstage, Marner introduces herself to his parents and tells Auston's girlfriend that the two of them look cute together.  His sisters, who don't get excited about hockey anymore, flit around her like sparrows.  She’s gracious with her time, taking selfies and signing their draft programs, the highly-stylized double "M" looping down into the rest of her name.

As he and his mother are walking back to the hotel much later that night, she comments on how pretty and brave Marner is.

He knows the truth to first part of her statement.  One of his teammates in Switzerland had taped an advertisement featuring Marner to the inside of his locker.  She had only been wearing a large purse and sky-high stilettos.

It will be years before Auston fully understands the second.

 

**_2._ **

Mitch Marner isn't the first woman drafted to the NHL, nor is she the first to captain a team, but she's the only woman playing currently, and the local, national, international media like to make a meal out of everything she does.

The media loves to talk about her work ethic, the kind of locker-room she cultivates, her clothing choices, and who is seen with her outside the rink.  Auston feels like a bad person because he knows if the media is focused on her, it's not paying attention to him.

She is the first one on the ice and the last one off.  She's early for everything.  She speaks to the media almost every day.  She mentors anyone who needs or wants help.  When Auston asks for her help with his edges, the way she can lean into a turn is second to none, she says yes.  She stays late with him for two weeks until he's happy.

Mitch keeps her personal life and her professional life separate.  If she dates, the team doesn't know about it until the media reports it or it shows up on social media.  She leaves hosting team parties to her Alternates and at family skate, Mitch's only guests are her best friend Stephanie (a tiny blonde who asks Auston if he's planning on taking the “C” away from her) and Stephanie's husband.

One of the first meetings the team has during training camp is how to address the subject of Mitch with the press.  The organization has one rule: Keep it positive.  The media is going to ask questions that invite conflict, and no one is to give in.  She leads their team, she works hard, she’s a great ambassador for the game should be the theme of their answers.

Auston is required to come in on several off-days to practice his answers with the PR team, who throw questions at him and record his answers.  He hates watching himself do media but PR forces him to watch himself and asks him what he could do better.  Then they have him do it all over again.

It seems like a waste of time until someone from one of the TV stations catches him leaving the trainers’ office while Mitch is shooting something on the ice wearing only athletic leggings, a sport bra, and skates and asks him what he thinks of the outfit.

Auston laughs and side-steps, saying that his captain could probably dead-lift him in her sleep.

He doesn’t say her long hair hides a lot of skin.

 

**_3._ **

When Babcock informs the team that Mitch has a stalker, her face is like stone, smooth and expressionless.

After the announcement, Auston finds her sobbing down a little-used corridor; her breathing cutting in and out as her body shakes.  He doesn't know how to help so he keeps walking and tries to ignore her red eyes and creaking voice as their line runs through drills.

Practice is fragile and uncomfortable, like the team doesn't know to act around their captain anymore.  She yells at them, face twisted in anger. 

Babcock cuts practice short.  Mitch is the first one off the ice, gloved hand swiping across her face.

Auston stays late to work off energy generated by the short, emotional practice and is surprised to hear Mitch's voice in the lobby of the arena.  She's not alone, an older couple, maybe her parents, flank her on a bench.  He feels like a voyeur, watching as Mitch tries to comfort her mother, before turning around and leaving the building through the loading bay.

 

**_4._ **

They dance together at the Christmas party after everyone else has gone. 

He'd sent his parents home in a cab as the party was winding down.  He can stay, make sure Mitch gets to her car safely.  It's the decent thing to do.

He finds her eating vegetables, feet propped up on the chair next to her.  Her skirts are pulled up almost to her knees and her shoes look like something out of a fairytale.  Princess shoes.

He sits down behind her.  It's creepy to stare at a woman when she hasn't asked you to.  Normally, Auston violates this rule with pleasure, and women allow him to get away with it, but feels wrong to do it to her.

She slides the plate between them and together they finish off the vegetables; Auston is still chewing when she holds her hands out.  He's confused but understand that she wants to dance when she shakes her hands at him.  The heavy skirt of her dress trips her up as she tries to lead him around the empty ballroom.  Auston feels like he's in one of the bonnet-dramas his mother is always watching on his Netflix account.

She gives him a little smile as she swings their arms back and forth.  Her perfume smells like power and the secrets she keeps next to her skin.  It makes Auston feel light-headed and heavy-limbed.

He walks her out after the event staff arrive and his heart feels like it’s going to rocket out of his chest when she leans in for a quick hug, wrapping deceptively thin arms around his shoulders.

 

**_5._ **

Auston is afraid their first kiss is a fluke, a mistake brought on by the whirling joy of the locker-room, the spray of champagne, and the emotional high.

The kiss hadn't been soft or sweet, more of an accidental clash of mouths that, for just a moment, had felt like the two of them were standing on the edge of something unknown.  The arrival of more beer had broken the connection.

Dread gnaws at Auston when Mitch picks him up the next morning for Victory Brunch, the Cup strapped in the back of her SUV like an infant.  He wants to talk about their kiss the night before and at the same time he doesn't.  What if it meant more to him than to her?  What if Mitch feels she can't trust him anymore? 

He hopes the sick feeling in his stomach is the result of too much alcohol and too little sleep.

This morning her eyelashes look huge and he’s momentarily distracted by the blue eyeshadow fanning out towards her temples.  She’s wearing her captain face; he knows this look from when they’re down by two with ten minutes to go in the third.  Whatever she’s decided to do, she’ll be dragging him along.

Auston waits.

She reaches for him, touching the tips of her fingers to his cheeks, down his nose, his mouth.  Auston slowly takes her hand in his, kisses the pads of her fingers, the inside of her wrist, the top of her hand.

He can’t stop looking at her.  She doesn’t look away.

He hears the click of her seatbelt.  He hears the plastic rustling of the tulle netting Mitch wears under her dress as she turns fully to face him.

Uses her other hand to pull him toward her.

They bump noses; breathe the same air.

Their second kiss is everything the first one wasn't.

 

**_Three Years Later:_ **

Auston hates ties.  He hates bow-ties even more.  Who decided that you had to wear a bow-tie with a tail coat?  He's watched videos on YouTube.  He's practiced with Elle.  The man at the suit shop showed him.  Three times.

Today, of all days, failure is not an option.  He's Auston Matthews; the tie should not be winning.

Suddenly, a large cup of coffee is under his nose.  It's his mother, who gives him it to him in exchange for the extra tie in the garment bag. 

While Auston's brain comes online, her fingers tuck, twist, and roll and suddenly the tie is in place.  She smooths the lapels down, looking at him in the mirror; his all white suit off-set by her flowing navy.

Auston suddenly feels choked up; tears threatening.  “Mama."  He can’t finish.

His mother takes both his hands in hers, pulling him down so she can kiss his cheeks.  Her hand has just tucked itself into the bend of his elbow when two altar boys appear in the doorway.

It's time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a work of fiction and contains: Sexism and stalking.
> 
> The age difference in this story is six years.
> 
> All mistakes are my own.

**Author's Note:**

> This is a work of fiction and contains: Sexism and stalking.
> 
> The age difference in this story is six years. 
> 
> All mistakes are my own.
> 
> The recipe for the nectarine tart: https://smittenkitchen.com/2008/07/nectarine-mascarpone-and-gingersnap-tart/


End file.
